PHP ecosystem: versions, frameworks, tooling and developer demographics.
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PHP Respondents
1.720
Survey Context
Based on the public dataset of the JetBrains Developer Survey 2025 (N=1.720, unweighted). The official report applies respondent weighting for representativeness — figures here may differ accordingly.
Top PHP Version
PHP 8.3
61,3 % of respondents
Primary IDE
PhpStorm
79,1 % of respondents
Top Framework
Laravel
61,6 % of respondents
Top 5 PHP Versions
#1
61,3 %
PHP 8.3
#2
56,1 %
PHP 8.4
#3
49,1 %
PHP 8.2
#4
28,7 %
PHP 7.4
#5
28,6 %
PHP 8.1
Top 5 Frameworks & CMSs
#1
61,6 %
Laravel
#2
34,0 %
Symfony
#3
21,9 %
WordPress
#4
10,0 %
Other
#5
7,0 %
CodeIgniter
Top 5 Testing Frameworks
#1
61,1 %
PHPUnit
#2
24,7 %
I don't write tests for PHP
#3
21,2 %
Pest
#4
6,7 %
Codeception
#5
4,8 %
I write tests but don't use any frameworks
Top 5 Quality Tools
#1
48,0 %
PHPStan
#2
40,8 %
PHP CS Fixer
#3
31,2 %
None
#4
29,7 %
PHP_CodeSniffer
#5
17,2 %
Php Inspections (EA Extended)
Largest Age Group
40–49
23,9 % of respondents
Most Common Experience
16+ years
27,2 % of respondents
Gender
Male
96,5 % of respondents
Top Region
Eastern Europe, Balkans, and the Caucasus
15,0 % of respondents
Age Distribution
#1
23,9 %
40–49
#2
20,5 %
35–39
#3
19,8 %
30–34
#4
16,6 %
25–29
#5
10,0 %
21–24
#6
6,3 %
50–59
#7
1,7 %
18–20
#8
1,2 %
60 or older
Years of Professional Coding Experience
#1
27,2 %
16+ years
#2
25,6 %
6–10 years
#3
21,7 %
11–15 years
#4
16,5 %
3–5 years
#5
6,2 %
1–2 years
#6
1,9 %
Less than 1 year
#7
1,0 %
I don't have professional coding experience
Experienced Community
The largest age group is 40–49 (23,9 % of respondents).
Experienced Developers
74,5 % of respondents have six or more years of professional coding experience.
Male-Dominated Field
96,5 % of respondents identify as Male.
Global Participation
Respondents span all regions. The largest single region is Eastern Europe, Balkans, and the Caucasus with 15,0 % of the sample.
Highest Level of Education
#1
40,1 %
Bachelor's degree
#2
19,4 %
Master's degree
#3
17,9 %
Incomplete college or university study without earning a bachelor's degree
#4
13,6 %
Secondary school
#5
2,5 %
Professional degree
#6
2,2 %
Primary / Elementary school
#7
1,9 %
Other
#8
1,5 %
Doctoral degree
#9
0,9 %
I never completed any formal education
Respondents by Country
#1
9,3 %
Germany
#2
8,4 %
France
#3
5,8 %
United States
#4
5,1 %
United Kingdom
#5
3,8 %
Other
#6
3,5 %
Brazil
#7
3,4 %
Poland
#8
3,3 %
Japan
#9
3,0 %
Netherlands
#10
2,7 %
Italy
Top PHP Version
PHP 8.3
61,3 % of respondents
Top Framework
Laravel
61,6 % of respondents
PHP Experience
More than 4 years
84,5 % of respondents
PHP Versions Regularly Used
#1
61,3 %
PHP 8.3
#2
56,1 %
PHP 8.4
#3
49,1 %
PHP 8.2
#4
28,7 %
PHP 7.4
#5
28,6 %
PHP 8.1
#6
15,1 %
PHP 8.0
#7
7,6 %
PHP 5.6 or older
#8
6,9 %
PHP 7.3
#9
5,1 %
PHP 7.2
#10
3,3 %
PHP 7.1
#11
2,6 %
PHP 7.0
#12
1,1 %
I'm not sure
#13
0,4 %
Other
PHP Frameworks & CMSs Regularly Used
#1
61,6 %
Laravel
#2
34,0 %
Symfony
#3
21,9 %
WordPress
#4
10,0 %
Other
#5
7,0 %
CodeIgniter
#6
6,9 %
None
#7
5,1 %
Yii
#8
4,2 %
Drupal
#9
2,9 %
Magento
#10
2,8 %
CakePHP
#11
2,0 %
Joomla!
How Long Have You Been Using PHP?
#1
84,5 %
More than 4 years
#2
7,7 %
From 2 years to less than 4 years
#3
4,1 %
From 1 year to less than 2 years
#4
2,2 %
From 6 months to less than 1 year
#5
1,5 %
Less than 6 months
Latest PHP Already Widespread
PHP 8.4 is used by 56,1 % of respondents.
Legacy PHP Projects Remain Common
36,4 % of respondents report using at least one PHP 7.x version — likely alongside modern PHP in maintenance projects.
Laravel Leads the Ecosystem
Laravel leads with 61,6 % — 1,8× more than Symfony (34,0 %).
Experienced PHP Community
The most common experience level is More than 4 years, chosen by 84,5 % of respondents.
Primary Editor / IDE
#1
79,1 %
PhpStorm
#2
13,5 %
Visual Studio Code
#3
2,9 %
IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate with the PHP plugin
#4
2,7 %
Cursor
#5
1,9 %
Other
How Do You Debug PHP Code?
#1
55,2 %
By dumping values (var_dump(), die(), dd(), dump(), ray(), etc.)
#2
43,3 %
Using a debugger (e.g. Xdebug)
#3
1,4 %
Other
PhpStorm Dominates
PhpStorm is used by 79,1 % of respondents — 5,9× more than Visual Studio Code.
Dump-Debugging Still Widespread
55,2 % of respondents rely primarily on dump()-style debugging rather than a dedicated debugger.
Containers Are Mainstream
59,8 % of respondents use containerized environments such as Docker in their PHP development workflow.
Shared Hosting Still Relevant
Despite widespread cloud adoption, 29,3 % of respondents still deploy to shared hosting.
PHP Development Environments
#1
74,2 %
Local
#2
59,8 %
Containerized (Docker, Rocket, etc.)
#3
35,7 %
Remote (SFTP, SSH, remote desktop, etc.)
#4
6,8 %
Virtualized (Vagrant, Otto, etc.)
#5
1,2 %
Other
How Do You Run PHP Apps in Production?
#1
74,4 %
Server or virtual machine (DigitalOcean, Linode, etc.)